I am a New-York-based multimedia producer and journalist. One of my strongest interests is Eastern Europe and anything related to Post-Soviet territory: its richness in oligarchs, political battles, economic crises, prominent cultural figures - and the wheat. I hold my Master of Science degree, with concentration in digital media, from the Columbia University School of Journalism. Born and raised in Ukraine, I've lived in Minneapolis, Boston and, for now, I’ve settled in New York -- spending most of my time online, where the true globalization is really taking place.

Art Explosion in a Steel Mill

When a large yellow ball appeared on the other side of the river, glowing above the horizon, the residents of Dnepropetrovsk – one of Ukraine’s largest industrial cities – couldn’t figure out what it was. The UFO turned out to be part of the grand scale installation, “Dnepropetrovsk Sunrise,” by a Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, integrated into a new $700 mln steel mill.

“As we know, a steel plant is about production,” said Elliason, who is known for his large art installations such as Waterfalls in New York City and The Weather Project at London’s Tate Modern. “And it’s defining success as something you can measure… Then you take art. You cannot measure what is the work of art—you put that inside of a work plant.”

The installation and the newly constructed Interpipe Steel mill, both financed by Ukrainian billionaire, Viktor Pinchuk (networth $4.2bln), opened on October 4th. They work well together but don’t quite match, visually or psychologically, the rest of the soviet-style, smokestack-covered industrial region, which lacks anything contemporary. In the dark, when the lighting is on, the steel mill looks like a gigantic entertainment center, with splashes of colorful tiles on the front wall, the building’s clean lines, and a large spiral tunnel – Eliasson’s creation – as the entrance, with its opening and closing “ribs” bouncing in the wind. The mill’s carefully landscaped surroundings – green grass seeming almost artificial, and young birch trees – makes the contrast with the rest of Dnepropetrovsk’s industrial district even more profound.

The art project is not meant to intimidate Dnepropetrovsk; it’s meant to boost cultural and economical life in an otherwise quiet city.

“As we all know, the past of Dnepropetrovsk is really a complex past,” Elliasson said, explaining his interest in making his art there. “The kind of the economy, the universities, the history in the Soviet time, the kind of nuclear physisism, the mathematical physisism, the kind of the institutional role this has played historically.”

Dnepropetrovsk, formerly Yekaterinoslav, used to be called “the closed city,” the home of the Soviet nuclear and space industry, omitted from general maps, with residents prohibited from traveling abroad. Today it’s dominated by several powerful Ukrainian business groups and hosts many students, attracted from all over Ukraine by the city’s colleges and universities.

The CEO of Interpipe , Alexander Kirichko, and other members of the management team, embraced the idea of placing the art in the steel mill’s space and are planning to give regular tours of the plant. “We have a special program here,” he said. “We call it industrial tourism.” They are planning to invite 10,000 to 15,000 people a year, targeting mainly young people.

The workers will be the ones who will be coming close to art on a regular basis. In the morning they walk to work through Your Thinking Tunnel, an arch constructed from steel pipes made in the mill, looking at Dnepropetrovsk Sunrise, the largest element of Eliasson’s project. The 60 meter sculpture is an artificial sun: two metal discs, intersected with each other, rest atop scaffolding made strong enough to support “the sun” and to handle the winds. In the main hall of the plant there is a series of mirrored discs and an installation-bridge, as well as a group of large colorful images on the steel mill’s façade: all part of Eliasson’s installation, constructed by the artist and his team of European engineers.

76% of the employees at the plant are highly educated engineers who also go through special training to be able to operate the complex systems of the new facility. Some workers find the artworks inspirational, and some have yet to feel the power of art. During conversations with workers while touring the steel mill, I learned that they are proud of getting high-paying jobs at the plant and that there are many rumors and much envy surrounding the appearance of the Interpipe Steel—the new beast in town.

When Victor Pinchuk’s company, Interpipe, started building the new facility in 2007 – construction being executed by Italian developer, Danieli – they didn’t plan for an art installation right away. With the mill’s capacity of 1,3200,00 tons per year, it became the largest steel production facility in Eastern Europe, producing steel and making round blooms for pipe and wheel production. According to Andrey Kutsov, the head of Interpipe’s investment management, it will supply product to Russia and other former Soviet Union countries, and also to North America, Africa, and the Middle East.

Dnepropetrovsk Sunrise emerged out of Pinchuk’s passion for art combined with the idea of breathing fresh ideas and innovation into the lives of regular citizens. The Pinchuk Art Center in Kyiv is known for showing the most sought-after international contemporary artists, including Damien Hirst, Andreas Gursky and Jeff Koons—all part of Pinchuk’s personal art collection.

At first, Dnepropetrovsk seems like an odd place to create a sophisticated art project: factories, smokestacks, powerlines, industrial workers with perhaps very little interest in the arts and generally low level of quality of life. This may not seem like a good playground for high art. But this is exactly what makes the idea of Dnepropetrovsk Sunrise so bold and even radical, and the experiment – bringing change from within – so raw.

“I think modernizing a country is a challenge that take a little more than art,” Eliasson said. “But I do think that the voice that art and culture has is necessary if you want to have a relationship with the ground people. It’s not enough if only a small elite modernizes.”

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